Gov. Scott Doesn’t Answer Why Nursing Home Voicemails Were Deleted

HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) – The voicemail messages left on Gov. Rick Scott’s personal cellphone by a Hollywood nursing home where at least 11 people have died following Hurricane Irma, were deleted, according to the governor’s office.

When asked by CBS4’s Gary Nelson why he would delete voicemails that might be key evidence in an investigation, Scott did not answer.

He also did not say if the voicemails were deleted before or after people started dying at the home where frail patients baked to death.

Of the voicemails from the nursing home, Scott said, “We turned it over to the right person. In this case it was the Department of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Administration, and they immediately called them back. Never did that facility say a patient was in danger.”

Scott continued to pound away at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, a facility with an abysmal history, according to inspections by state and federal regulators.

“This facility had a responsibility to call 911 if a patient was in danger. They decided not to do that. That’s why there is an investigation, that’s why we revoke their license, because this facility didn’t do their job,” Scott said.

Natasha Anderson, a vice president with The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, says she called the governor’s cellphone to say the nursing home needed “immediate assistance” in restoring the power to their air conditioning system.

Scott said at no time did anyone from the nursing home suggest there was a crisis or that patients were in danger.

In response to CBS4’s request for copies of the voicemails, a spokeswoman with the governor’s office, wrote in an email: “The voicemails were not retained because the information from each voicemail was collected by the Governor’s staff and given to the proper agency for handling.”